Alternatives
by NitWhit540
Summary: Its been dull since the BPRD faced off with Rasputin, but its about to get very interesting, very fast. My first fic so R&R please. Rated for language and some blood and guts.


Ok, I don't own Hellboy or anything. Just a little header note for those who don't know what sais are, they are thosethree pronged dagger things.They are real things, look them up online if you're really curious...anywho, here we go:

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**Chapter I: Déja Vu**

The BPRD was unusually tranquil. Only the monotonous hum of the aquarium could be heard. Some cats mewed, but they were few and far between. Outside the world also seemed to be cold and dull. It was bitter February day, so people outside were bundled up, spending as little time as possible out of their homes. Back inside, Abe drifted lazily in his tank between his 5 books, reading every word very carefully. Liz was in her room, wrapped in a blanket, sipping coffee (black) and staring out a tinted window at nothing. Hellboy, also in his room, lay on his bed, watching TV, petting which every cat wandered close to him. Agent Evans, the late Agent Clay's replacement, leaned up against the wall outside of Hellboy's room. He had dozed off, loosely grasping a New York Times. Myers was somewhere. He had said where he was going, but people weren't really listening. He probably went to get a paper or coffee. Not much had happened in the months since the BPRD faced Rasputin and awareness had slacked off. Manning didn't even have anything to complain about, not that he didn't try. All of sudden there was a loud beeping sound. It seemed to be blaring in the silence, coming from Hellboy's room. Abe looked up from his books, Liz dropped her blanket, put down her coffee and peered into the hallway outside her room, and Evans nearly fell over waking from his deep stupor. Hellboy came out of his room in his trench coat.

"We're going on a field trip. Myers found something."

A garbage truck backed into a secluded alley behind several dingy-looking restaurants. Myers stood in the cold, bundled in thick jacket and scarf with a very fatigued look on his face. The back of truck opened up and Hellboy, Abe and Liz walked out.

"What happened?" Liz asked seeing the look on his face.

"I was walking back from getting a paper and I heard someone scream from behind this place. I ran back here and found her." He stepped aside. There lay a woman, maybe in her early twenties, on the ground. She wore a long black trench coat and elegant black, leather gloves. She looked very out of place. She lay in a pool of what looked like old transmission fluid. She was of medium height and thin face. From under her trench coat,she appeared to have a very thin frame. Her hair was light brown, but matted with the black liquid. She had a very pretty face, but she looked worried.

"And you called us rather than an ambulance?" Hellboy questioned.

"I was going to until I saw these." Myers bent down next to the woman and opened her trench coat to reveal two, large, brilliantly silver sais. They were very formidable-looking, but nevertheless graceful and stunning. Each handle was wrapped in red silk with the excess forming long ribbon tassels near the butt end. On the middle prong of each sai was an inscription in an unreadable language; at least to the others.

"_Soul Reaper_." Hellboy read aloud.

"What?"

"_Soul Reaper_. That's what the inscription says."

"How can you rea—" Myers began but was cut off.

"She is still alive." Abe said quietly, staring at her with his head cocked. The others jumped. Abe was so quiet everyone nearly forgot he was there. He blinked. "But she has lost some blood."

"I don't see any blood." Liz said, looking around the woman. "Should we call an ambulance?"

Abe crawled towards her on all fours in his own peculiar way. Squatting on his toes, he gently picked up her hand and watched the gooey black liquid ooze in ropes from the sleeve of her trench coat to the ground. "Taking into consideration that this is her blood…probably not. Her wound has stopped bleeding anyway."

Hellboy raised an eyebrow. "Well, what made 'er bleed?"

"We shall soon see, won't we?" Abe said, putting her palm in his and placing his other hand on top of hers while Hellboy muttered, "Who's _we_?" while lighting up a cigar and rolling his eyes. Abe blinked. The alley way melted before him. Soon he felt as though the only part of him left was his eyes, but they weren't even his. He was seeing through hers.

The woman walked down the alley, buttoning her trench coat. A man shouted something that sounded like "Herrisse!" Abe felt her face muscles clench in a wince. She turned to a rather fat man standing halfway out of the back of one of the restaurants. He had on a stained apron and a very angry look. He started shouting at her in broken English.

"Ok! Ok! I'll come early tomorrow! Jesus, if you stopped shitting glass every time I was late, maybe I'd be more motivated to come early!" The woman shouted back, pivoting on her heels and continuing on her path. Abe heard the fat man speaking very angrily in his own tongue and slamming the door. The woman only managed a few more steps before being stopped again.

"Theresa?" A man's voice came from behind her.

She, Theresa apparently, stopped again. "Yes?" She said sounding irritated, remaining with her back to the man.

"I believe you can help me."

"Unless you want the waitressing job I was probably just fired from," she said wearily, "I don't think I can." She continued walking again.

The man laughed an eerie, hollow laugh. "You cannot leave now. I have been searching for months for—" he pause, "someone like you. I would not want all of my tedious research and investigations to go to waste."

The woman stopped dead. She looked to the ground next to her. "What are you talking about?"

"I know why you have those sais under your coat. I know what you are."

Theresa turned around and faced them man. His body didn't match his voice to the least. He was a well-dressed businessman with no visible, distinct features. He looked like any other person you might pass on the street. His voice however was deep, yet lacking substance and made her skin tingle.

"Oh really?" she retorted, trying to sound amused, "what am I?" Abe could feel her heart racing and her hands shaking. She was terrified.

"You, my dear, are a Soul Reaper and I am in need of your skills."

"I'm not anymore! I stopped!" She blurted out angrily. Her muscles clinched up as though she just came to a screeching halt after a sprint.

"You may think you have changed, that you can just assimilate to society, but nothing can change who you are. Even you know that. Although you may have disguised yourself on the outside, inside, you would love nothing more than to kill again. You were so easy to find because you can't hide you hunger. Even now you wish you could just pierce through—"

"Who are you?" she interrupted, taking a step back.

"How rude of me." A twisted smile crossed his face as he took a step forward. "I am—" Before the man could finish a thin blade pierced his stomach from behind and then retracted. Blood dribbled out of the corner of his mouth as the man fell to his knees and over on his side. As she watched him fall, she noticed his eyes. He almost looked confused, like he just woke up; he was a puppet. When he fell, the man revealed another man behind him. A man with in a long, black coat, under which was a strange golden chest plate. In both hands he carried baton blades, one soaked in blood. He wore a gas mask over his face.

Abe blinked and the alleyway became blurry in the real world. He had nearly dropped her hand. That couldn't be right. Kroenen was left pinned down in a pit at Rasputin's Mausoleum. He couldn't have escaped. Abe grabbed the woman's hand tightly while the others watched him anxiously. The alley in his mind came back into focus.

The woman took a step back and reached for one of her sais as he advanced on her quickly. Before she could draw her weapon Kroenen swung the blade at her. She bent over backwards just in time to feel the wind from the blades brush past her face. She dropped her hand behind her to catch herself and kicked him in the chest, pushing him away from her. She moved very gracefully and fast as her back arched to avoid the blades. Suddenly there was a searing pain in her calf. She looked down to find a deep, black cut on her leg. When he stumbled backwards one of the blades must have caught her. She let out a painful scream. Kroenen regained his balance and advanced on her again while she hobbled on one leg. As he took a step closer, she grabbed her sais, crossed them above of her, and sliced an x downwards, catching Kroenen right below the gold chest plate creating a considerable cut in his abdomen. He stopped completely sensing something wasn't right. Dropping both swords, he put his hand up to the cut, but his face remained fixed on the woman. His head cocked like a vulture as deep, red blood trickled down between his gloved fingers. He looked at his blood soaked hand, then at the sais, and then at her. Although his face wasn't visible, it was easy to tell that he was completely bewildered. Breaking confused silence was a voice and the rushing slaps of shoes on pavement.

"Hello! Is everything ok?" Abe easily recognized the voice of Meyers and it was getting closer.

Kroenen swiveled towards Myers voice, still holding his non-mechanical hand over his bleeding gut. A raspy, cracking, "This is not done." could barely be heard over the sounds of the respirator. The words were chosed very carefully that his lack of lips did not interfere with his speech.He picked up the blades and ran in the opposite direction down the alley. The woman put her sais back in their sheaths and watched him run, but suddenly the alley way became blurry. However Abe was still holding her hand tightly; this was her. She looked down at her calf and tried to focus on deep laceration out of which was pouring thick, black blood, but couldn't. She looked up again, swaying slightly before falling backwards. She was inches from hitting the pavement…

Abe blinked. He was back in the real world. He let go of the woman's hand and rolled his weight from his toes to his heals and stood. The others watched him in silence, waiting for him say something.

"Well?" Hellboy blurted out in the solemn hush. "Who is she? What happened?"

"Well…her name is Theresa…and we have a problem."


End file.
